CHRIS Hood is adamant he will resist the temptation to sign loan Super League players in the wrong positions.

Injury-hit Thunder need a half-back, but rugby director Hood has trawled the clubs and found nothing suitable – so rather than bring in a player in a different position and shift one of his stars to half-back, Hood will stick with the status quo.

Preparing for tomorrow’s Northern Rail Cup clash with Batley at Gateshead Stadium (kick-off 3pm), Hood said: “There’s a big temptation to take up the offer of some of the players clubs are suggesting, but it would be counter-productive.

“We have been offered a number of players but in other positions. Now that might allow us to shift someone to half-back and bring the loan player into that different spot, but that is only a very short-term solution.

“As a club, short-term fixes have dominated our 10 years and that has to stop.

“It is tempting to take up the offer of Super League players on loan, but we will only do that for players in the right areas – and now that means at half-back.”

Admitting that some Super League players have priced themselves out of a loan deal, Hood continued: “It’s 50-50 with the Super League clubs.

“Half of them have wages that totally price us out of the market and the other half are at the stage where it would probably send out the wrong message to let players go out on loan so early.

“We have spoken to a lot of the clubs and we have been offered players, but they are in the wrong areas.

“We have spoken about a number of half-backs, but they are too expensive – and to be honest they are pricing themselves out of the market.

“If they are in a position where they need rugby then you might think that the rugby would come before the wages, but obviously not.

“They would have a chance to get regular rugby with us and then return to their parent Super League club and fight for a first-team spot, as a number of guys have done with us over the years.

“But it doesn’t seem as though they see it that way, so we have had to leave that for now.

“We’ll just keep fighting with what we have and we’re fine with that, the players know what’s ahead of them and are fully fired up for the battle.”